News from the Future Front

I'm going to be on the road again this week (same time, same place, same errand — more or less).

In the meantime, though, here's this month's Halting State moment; the BBC report that the police are on course to adopt smartphones wholesale by 2010.

Bedfordshire's force piloted the scheme. For a cost of £270 per officer per year, they managed to cut the time their constables spend in the station from 46% to 36% of their time on shift. (It's a hugely cost-effective measure, considering that...